Joie Chitwood Jnr, his father and his son were all car stuntmen in the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show – which entertained large, often huge, crowds right across America for over 50 years. They all have motor racing in their blood too and it would be fair to call them a family of ‘petrolheads’.
Joie Jnr sets the scene for us: “My dad had a pretty tough upbringing. He was born in Denison, Texas, in 1912. His father, who was a railway worker, upped and left just after he was born and then his mum died when he was two. He was raised by his two elder sisters. He left school early to work in his uncle’s battery shop and when he was 16, he lied about his age and joined the Navy where he learned to weld. When he left, three years later, he got a job as a welder in a fabrication shop.
“In 1934 he built a race car for someone who then entered it in a race. His driver didn’t show up, so he asked my dad to drive it and he won the race (on a dirt track at Winfield, Kansas). That was the start of his race career.”
Joie Snr was then offered other drives and proved to be rather good, winning several sprint car championships. He contested the Indianapolis 500 seven times between 1940
